When will real immigration debate begin?

The immigration debate flared anew this week with the Obama administration’s announcement that it will review the cases of some 300,000 undocumented immigrants slated for deportation, in an effort to identify “low-priority” offenders who might be allowed to remain in the country and even to get a work permit.

The announcement produced howls from one side that the decision amounts to amnesty for illegal immigrants by administrative decree. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, called the decision “illegal.” Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, questioned “what part of the word ‘illegal’ does the president not understand?” Frankly, those criticisms are not difficult to accept.

On the other side, the argument is that with deportations at record levels and immigration courts swamped, it only makes sense to focus on the cases of illegal immigrants who have committed other crimes in this country or are otherwise considered a security threat. “Limited resources should be used on people who pose a real threat or have criminal records,” said Muzaffar Chishti of the Migration Policy Institute at the New York University School of Law. That logic, too, is easy to accept.

But both sides miss the real point, which is that this controversy merely demonstrates, again, the need for comprehensive immigration reform that deals with all the many complexities of the immigration debate. Our question is: When will that debate begin?